1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a high quality natural fur hat made of fur plate segments and a method of manufacturing the fur plates of short tails and small pieces of fur.
2. Description of the Related Art
The present invention is directed at manufacture of natural fur articles. The process was developed in conjunction with making fur plates for a fur hat but is adaptable to a variety of fur articles. The natural fur hat of the present invention, often called a streimel (also spelled shtreimel), has been and continues to be a popular article of clothing among some groups in many areas of the world. The hat is traditionally made of animal tails, and fine quality streimels are currently made from the tails of sable, marten, fisher, and other fur bearing animals.
The use of fur bearing animal tails for clothing is very limited as the tails are not long enough for most garments. Some methods for modifying the tail to make it longer have been proposed. U.S. Pat. No. 2,196,273 (Schatz) describes a method of slitting the tail lengthwise, flattening it and then cutting it into narrow pieces of slit fur which are then alternately sewn together with flexible material in the same order in which the slit fur pieces are removed. This forms a longer piece of alternating fur and bald pieces that may be used in some clothing.
In making a fine quality streimel the tails are traditionally assembled around the periphery of the hat crown in the vertical direction as opposed to the horizontal direction. The design has a long tradition and has evolved from a traditional array of thirteen animal tails, often with alternating fur colors, to a series of thick, flat, uniform color, fur panels, called plates, which cover the hat periphery and employ many more tails than the traditional thirteen, typically on the order of thirty-six. Today's fine quality streimel is constructed such that the fur panel appears to be a seamless continuous piece of fur. This seamless appearance is provided by constructing the plates of a stiff, but moldable, form to which, in the prior art, the entire fur tail is glued or sewn around the edges of the form.
Traditionally the streimel plate forms were made of parchment that had been treated with glue to make them stiff. Now a flexible heat resistant plastic is used, such as Nomex®. A plastic stiffener is inserted into a pouch sewn to the plate form to maintain the shape of the plate. Also, a ribbon of material is sewn or glued to the plate form. This ribbon is the means of attaching the plates around the circumference of the hat crown by sewing them sequentially together by the ribbons to form a circle of plates, or sewing them to a length of ribbon which is then attached end to end to form the circle of plates, so that the circle of plates is the size of the circumference of the hat. The order of assembly of the hat is to first cover the outside of the hat crown, generally with a felt material. Then the lining is installed. Finally the circle of fur plates is attached. A complete hat is then shaped and molded by heating the hat and bending the plate stiffeners when hot. The plate stiffeners are bent into a curve so the plates lie against each other, back to front, with only the fur on the plate periphery showing. Trimming, dying, final cleaning, and final shaping of the finished hat completes the process. A completed fine quality streimel has the fur plates so skillfully shaped that the hat appears to be made of a solid piece of fur.
The fur tails are processed prior to attachment to the plate form to provide the desired density and length of fur. In the prior art this processing involves increasing the fur density by first cutting the tail lengthwise and flattening it, then pleating a tail in the long direction using a process called nailing. Nailing involves wetting the tail skin to make it pliable and mounting the wet skin with nails onto a board in a pleated configuration. The skin is then dried and the finished, pleated tail is removed from the board for installation on the plate form. Installation on the form often requires the tail to be further shaped by slitting and sewing material into the skin and trimming the tail to obtain a shape that will result in the desired configuration.
The process of pleating the tails, shaping them, and installing them on the plate form is labor intensive. It also involves wasted material in the trimmings from the tails as they are assembled on the plates. What is needed is a method of processing the tails to obtain properly shaped fur plates with less labor and waste.
Streimel hats made of artificial materials are also available, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,814 (Ettinger). The artificial fur is formed into stiffened artificial pelts of a pre-determined shape that are installed on the hat crown through slots in the crown. The artificial streimel therefore cannot be significantly shaped following assembly and the resulting hat is easily identified as of lower quality.